Me and My Big Mouth

On Tuesday I called the GI Clinic nurse to have her fax in a prescription for more Elecare. After trying to convince me to do it, she finally agreed to take care of it and asked if I needed any flavor packets. Seriously, there are flavor packets? I’m currently using strawberry syrup so of course I’d like some flavor packets.

As she was getting off the phone I stopped her for just one more question. I should have left my big mouth shut. Recently, since we have been focusing more on spoon feeding at OT, I decided to start keeping track of the calories Averi eats (sad, I know). However many calories she eats orally I subtract the equivalent of that in formula from her feed so that the total calorie intake is the same as if she just had the formula (have I lost you yet?).

The other day I realized that I wasn’t replacing that liquid in her diet and started giving her water to replace the formula that I was taking out. Example: she eats 80 calories of bananas, I subtract 4 oz of formula (20 calories/ounce), she gets 2 oz of formula and 4 oz of water (to replace the formula I took out).

This all makes perfect sense to me but I wanted to check with the “professionals” to make sure I was treating the water correctly. The nurse immediately asked me if Dr. Punati knew I was replacing formula with food and explained that their philosophy was that any food she got orally was just bonus. She insisted on checking with the doctor. Good thing I didn’t tell her that I’ve already reduced the total amount of formula I’m giving her. :)

My caller ID announced at 7:30 yesterday morning that the GI Clinic was calling. I didn’t answer – I knew it wasn’t going to be good. The message the nurse left was comical. I’m pretty sure she said “NOT” at least 8 times…“Dr. Punati does NOT want you to replace the formula,” “you should NOT be subtracting any formula.” She also wanted me to get a weight check on Averi to send to them and to make sure that I called her back so she knew I got her message.

The stipulation she gave was that we could start replacing formula if Averi was taking 300 calories orally a day. I decided to add it up and she’s averaging 320 a day. I called back today to let the nurse know and she changed her tune again. She informed me that we should not do any substituting until after doing a weight check in 2 weeks. Then she flat out told me that all they care about is weight gain. Do I even have to tell you that I didn’t listen to a single word she said?

Note to self: keep your big mouth shut!